“And so, my children, listen to me, for all who follow my ways are joyful. Proverbs 8:32 NLT

Life Lessons

As an educator, I am always amazed at how students learn life lessons.

I have been a teacher for almost 15 years, and without fail, there is always that one student who makes a decision that is not in his or her best interest.

A few years ago, while working at a middle school, we had a student with behavior problems. No matter how many times he got into trouble, he just couldn’t seem to learn his lesson. If he wasn’t skipping class or smoking behind the school, he was fighting his classmates.

For a while, the student would get suspended at least once a week. After several weeks of being suspended for a host of things, his mother accused the school of picking on her son. When the student got his tenth suspension, one of our male teachers had enough of his behavior and decided to go to his home to talk to him. The teacher hoped he could establish a relationship with the student so he could make a difference in this young man’s life; however, the young man refused to talk to the teacher, and his mother asked him to leave. The teacher was disappointed and hurt.

Learning to Listen To God

We often do the same thing to God. He continuously offers us salvation, yet we refuse to talk to Him. We run all day and not once do we thank Him for our lives. We make decisions without asking for guidance. We refuse to accept His grace and mercy. We remain this way until something bad happens.

The Bible says in Proverbs 8:32, “And so, my children, listen to me, for all who follow my ways are joyful” (NLT). If we chose not to follow God ways, we are choosing to live a life without joy. During our spring break, that same young man picked up a loaded gun to play with. Unfortunately, he accidentally shot himself in front of all of his friends. While his life ended tragically, those young men who witnessed the accident were forever changed. I was changed. I remember going to his funeral and hearing his mother’s words: “No one could save my son.”

My prayer today is that we will not need a tragedy to learn that God gives us joy. I hope we learn to seek His face and trust His word. He offers us life more abundantly — all we have to do is ask for it. He loves us with an everlasting love. I pray each day we choose life with God. Lesson learned.

This devotion originally appeared on Devotable written by Paula Sanders Blackwell

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